BRITISH EMBASSY NEUTRAL ON PRESIDENTIAL RACE
PanARMENIAN.Net
14.02.2008 16:19 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The British Embassy in Yerevan rejects the
allegations in a report in the "Hayots Ashkhar" daily on 13 February
titled "British Embassy in the role of a courier?", that an Embassy
driver disseminated "propaganda material" for the election campaign
of an Armenian presidential candidate.
"There is no basis for this accusation. The UK Government strongly
supports the efforts of the Armenian Government to conduct democratic
and transparent elections in Armenia, and maintains strict impartiality
in the contest," reads a statement issued by the Embassy.
"The British Embassy in Yerevan has supported a public awareness
project against election bribery. This project is publishing several
thousand leaflets encouraging Armenian voters to refuse election
bribery, in support of the efforts of the Armenian authorities
to promote a free and fair contest on February 19. The leaflets
have been distributed to NGOs and to all presidential candidates’
campaign offices that have expressed an interest in distributing
them. The Embassy driver was assisting the Embassy in delivering these
leaflets. The leaflets have been delivered to "It’s Your Choice",
"Center for Community Dialogue and Initiatives", "Hakastver", and
"Armedia" NGOs, as well as the election campaign headquarters of the
presidential candidates Aram Harutyunyan, Arman Melikyan, Artashes
Geghamyan, Arthur Baghdassaryan, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Serzh Sargsyan,
Tigran Karapetyan, Vahan Hovhannisyan and Vazgen Manukyan," it says.